A Rebranding

Welcome to the first of what I plan to be many posts here on my new blog, DLFwriting. My approach with my old blog, SandalsontheBeach, was not as disciplined as I had imagined, and as a result, I’ve decided upon a new approach to my writing and wanted a fresh start. The plan is still the same; to become a profilic poster in order to further deveolp and fine-tune my skills in the medium. The end game, too, is still the same; to become a published writer.

There’s no doubt in my mind I’ll get there, it’s just a matter of finally following the advice of a former teacher of mine from the FIU Creative Writing Department, John Dufrense. He said a couple things that have stuck with me, even if I haven’t acted upon them with the discipline I should.

#1: “Novels are written, not wished into existence.”

#2: “You have to sit your ass in the chair or nothing will get done.”

I am certainly guilty of not following that second commandment. Far too many days have passed where I did not sit down and hammer out a scene or two. Far too many days have passed where I’ve said to myself I should be writing. Far too many days have been wasted with my fingers manipulating the buttons of one remote control or another and not the keys of my keyboard.

So this new blog, hopefully, is a renewal of the commitment to those two pieces of advice. And as such, instead of returning to the old blog, I’ve decided to rebrand myself, not unlike a professional wrestler changing his stage name in an effort to develop a more successful and recognizable gimmick.

As a kid in the 80s, professional wrestling was very much a part of my life. Watching Hulk Hogan and the Macho Man Randy Savage, among many others, was something my brothers and I enjoyed very much. Eventually, Macho Man gave way to the Ultimate Warrior and other wrestlers came to dominate the scene. Learning that wrestling was fake, while in retrospect was ridiculous, at the time it was devastating. It was a seismic shake to my reality, an event that tipped my personal richter scales in much the same way as learning Santa Claus wasn’t actually the one eating the chocolate chip cookies we’d baked on Christmas Eve.

My enjoyment of professional wrestling renewed in college, when the now-WWE (formerly WWF) dominated the sports entertainment landscape. It was then when I paid more attention to the characters, and found the sophmoric inanity to be an escape. While my interest has certainly wanned since then, it was at that point in time I noticed wrestlers changing their names, become different characters, and usually, that rebranding resulted in a far more successful stage-run for the wrestler. Take Triple H, maybe the most popular and successful wrestler for a ten-year stretch (I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact he eventually married Stephanie McMahon, the daughter of the company’s owner). Paul Levesque debuted as “The Connecticut Blue Blood Hunter Hearst Hemsley” and that stage name eventually morphed into Triple H, and his gimmick evolved right along side the name. A wrestler from my original enjoyment of wrestling, the 1-2-3 Kid, later became “X-Pac” and had a far more successful run with that monkier.

My blog rebranding is an effort to reenergize my efforts to become a published writer. I’m not going to try completely change my image, like Nike’s efforts to rebrand LeBron as a villian. Lebron’s efforts in that rebranding are half-hearted at best, and my efforts cannot be that. Now that I’ve finally settled on a name for my new blog, I will heed the advice of my former teacher and sit my ass in the chair to pound out some posts and practice my prose. My focus will be on getting my stories finished, edited, and ready for publication.

When listening to John Dufrense’s writing commandments, I can’t help but have another quote sound in my mind. The quote will bolster my efforts to become a published writer. A dear friend of mine, Steven, once told me I should always have a Star Wars reference in all my stories, so here’s one for the first post on my new blog.

Like this:

Related

Published by David Fernandez

Out there, I'm a husband, father, son, brother, friend, teacher, and coach. In here, sitting at my desk, I'm an aspiring fiction writer who dabbles in sports journalism. Check out my work at ByDLFernandez.com, or follow me on Twitter @ByDLFernandez.
View all posts by David Fernandez

Content

Follow me on Twitter

Out there, I'm a husband, father, son, brother, friend, teacher, and coach. In here, sitting at my desk, I'm an aspiring fiction writer who dabbles in sports journalism. Check out my work at ByDLFernandez.com, or follow me on Twitter @ByDLFernandez.